Karen Corbett

Molecular Biophysics Graduate StudentMajor Professor: Dr. Wei Yang

Lab: 418 KLB (Kasha Laboratory Building)

RESEARCH INTERESTS

My research area of interest involves the development of sampling algorithms for quantitative simulations of biomolecules. Specifically, my research goal is to efficiently and accurately simulate high-frequency, high-barrier biomolecular events such as enzymatic reactions.

Utilizing computer simulations to understand how biomolecules such as enzymes work has long been a goal of computational biophysics. One of the challenges to completing this goal lies in the notorious timescale problem, the gap between the timescales feasible by regular molecular dynamics with current computational power and the timescales of many biologically relevant events. The orthogonal space random walk and the on-the-path random walk sampling strategies, previously developed in Dr. Wei Yang’s laboratory, have enabled physically robust simulations of biomolecular systems and have been able to overcome the aforementioned timescale problem. I will develop new simulation methods for enzymatic reactions using these sampling schemes as the framework.